Louisiana Voice

Since Jan. 20, 2025, his first day of his second term, Donald Trump has issued 89 pardons, not counting the Since Jan. 20, 2025, his first day of his second term, Donald Trump has issued 89 pardons, not counting the NEARLY 1600 BLANKET PARDONS he bestowed on all those rioters from the Jan. 6, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol.

(And these were for just the first 10 months of 2025)

Of those 89, no fewer than 36 were for felons convicted of fraud or drug offenses.

The 27 fraud pardons and nine pardons for drug charges might seem a little out of kilter for a president who presents himself as be so opposed to fraud in Minnesota and drugs in Venezuela.

So, let’s take a look at those 36 pardons.

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich: convicted in 2011 of, among other things, attempting to sell a US Senate seat. (as a side note, Blagojevich was once booted off Trump’s reality TV show, Celebrity Apprentice.)

Brian Kelsey: the former Tennessee state senator had pleaded guilty to campaign finance fraud.

Devon Acher: defrauding the Wakpamni Native American tribe of tens of millions of dollars.

Trevor Milton: Former CEO of Nikola convicted of defrauding investors but pardon kept him from having to repay $660 million to victims.

Jason Galanis: along with Acher, conspiracy to defraud Wakpamni tribe of $60 million. Received commutation of sentence instead of full pardon. Both Acher and Galanis had worked with Republicans in their effort to impeach President Joe Biden.

Ozy Media, Carlos Watson: Conspiracy to commit securities fraud, ordered to make $37 million restitution.

Michele Fiore: former Las Vegas city council member convicted of defrauding a federal charity.

Scott Howard Jenkins: former Pennsylvania county sheriff convicted on four counts of honest services fraud, along with seven counts of bribery.

Todd and Julie Chrisley: Reality TV stars convicted in 2022 of bank and tax fraud.

Lawrence Duran: Convicted of $205 million in Medicare fraud in Florida, ordered to repay $87 million.

Michael Gerard Grimm; Former New York representative pleaded guilty in 2014 to felony tax evasion.

George Santos: former New York representative convicted of fraud, removed from office.

Marian I Morgan: convicted of running multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme from her Florida home.

John G. Rowland: former Connecticut governor convicted of election fraud, conspiracy.

Charles Overton Scott: convicted of securities fraud.

Changpeng zhao: Perhaps the most egregious of Trump’s pardons, Zhao was founder of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. He was convicted of failing to stop criminals from using the platform to move money connected to child sex abuse, drug trafficking, terrorism and money laundering.

Glen Casada: former Tennessee House Speaker convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud, theft, bribery and kickbacks.

Cade Cothren: Casada’s former chief of staff convicted along with his boss.

Joseph Lewis: the British national billionaire businessman pleaded guilty two years ago to conspiracy to commit securities fraud. He was pardoned last November.

David Gentile: investment manager was convicted of multiple fraud charges and was sentenced to seven years. He reported to prison last Nov. 14 but served only 12 days before Trump pardoned him.

Enrique Roberto and Imelda Rios Cueller: member of Congress from Texas, Cueller and his wife were indicted on charges that for a decade, they ran a fraudulent bribery scheme. The couple was indicted but were pardoned before they could be tried.

Alexander Sittenfeld: Cincinnati City Council member pleaded guilty campaign fraud, bribery, attempted extortion, sentenced to 16 months in prison

Robert Henry Harshbarger, Jr.: pleaded guilty in 2013 to health care fraud and distributing a misbranded drug through his wife’s company, American Inhalation Medication Specialists. His wife, also a pharmacist, was elected to Congress in 2020 as a Trump supporter.

Tim Leiweke: the ex-CEO of Oak View Group, the developer for a new LSU arena was indicted but never tried for orchestrating a conspiracy to rig the bidding process before Trump issued him a full pardon.

And then there are the nine pardons for drug offenders:

Ross William Ulbricht: the founder of the Silk Road dark web marketplace where he operated “the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace” was sentenced to life imprisonment for fraud in identifying drugs sold over the internet and for money laundering.

Jean Pinkard: convicted of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, she is the beneficiary of Trump’s “No MAGA Left Behind” pardoning spree.

Michael Ray Harris: All this gang leader did was run a national drug trade (and get himself convicted of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.

Larry Hoover: another gang leader (from Chicago) who had been serving multiple life sentences for drugs, money laundering, extortion and murder.

Garrett Gilbert Smith; Baltimore drug trafficker who was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Trump commuted to time served with no further fines, restitution, supervised release or other conditions.

Charles Lavar Tanner: convicted of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five kilos or more of cocaine.

Anabel Valenxula: sentenced in 2009 to 32 years for meth trafficking.

Edward Ruben Soeiot and Joe Soteio: convicted and sentenced in the 1990s as major players in a drug conspiracy.

Juan Orlando Hernandez: The granddaddy of all presidential pardons, Hernandez is the former president of Honduras who was found guilty of conspiracy to import some 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S., along with assorted firearms charges. Sentenced to 45 years in federal prison. It mattered little that he was the leader of one of the largest criminal enterprises ever subject to a conviction in U.S. courts; he had a friend named Roger Stone and Stone had a friend named Trump. So, a PARDON was a mere formality.

To see the list of all 89 persons pardoned by Trump in 2025, as compiled by the U.S. Department of Justice, go HERE.

And here’s a bit of lagniappe for you. It’s a list of all those pardoned by Trump (mostly Jan. 6 participants) who have subsequently been arrested on other charges:

• David Daniel 
• Andrew Kyle Grisby 
• Theodore Middendorf 
• Andrew Quentin Taake 
• John D. Andries 
• Joshua Lee Atwood 
• Bryan Betancur 
• Dominic Box 
• Kyle Travis Colton 
• Timothy Desjardins 
• James Tate Grant 
• Jarod Lee Hawks 
• Joshua Dillon Haynes 
• Emily Hernandez 
• Colby Dillion Herrington 
• Daryl Eugene Johnson 
• Edward Kelley 
• Kene Brian Lazo 
• Jia Liu 
• Martin Joseph Pastucci 
• Donald Nathan Pelham 
• Narayana Chandra Rheiner 
• Alan Michael St. Onge 
• Hatchet Speed 
• Taylor Taranto 
• Shane Jason Woods 
• Miles Adkins 
• Zachary Alam 
• John Banuelos 
• Brent John Holdridge 
• Matthew Huttle 
• Christopher Moynihan 

There you have it—the fraud and drug crime honor roll. A tribute to that paragon of law and order, Donald J. Trump.

So, remember, boys and girls. Crime does not pay (unless you happen to have a connection to Agent Orange). But most of all, don’t be conned into believing that Venezuela is about drugs or Minnesota is about fraud. The math just doesn’t work.

Donald Trump holds himself up to his adoring base as a crime fighter and defender against fraud.

The facts say otherwise.

Take the widespread claims (sans proof, by the way) that daycare centers operated by Somali residents in Minneapolis had stolen more than $100 million.

That claim, of course led Trump to dispatch federal officers to Minnesota which, in turn, led indirectly to the shooting death of Renee Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday.

Yet, we have right next door in Mississippi a fraud scandal of equal proportions that has drawn scant attention from der Führer Trump or any of his Repugnantcan supporters.

Just to bring you up to date on that one, the Mississippi welfare fraud scheme was a major investigation in MISSISSIPPI in which several high-profile individuals, including former NFL quarterback Brett Favre and wrestlers Brett DiBiase and Ted DiBiase, Jr., were entangled a couple of years back when the state auditor released a report identifying $94 million in questionable spending by the Mississippi Department of Human Services.

So, we have $100 million in blue state Minnesota that becomes a national scandal implicating a Democratic governor up for reelection (Tim Walz has since withdrawn from the race) and a $94 million fraud scheme in a decidedly red state that is ignored by the feds and caught only by the locals.

There’s not a lot of difference between $100 million and $94 million but Trump and the Repugs got their drawers in a wad when it was a blue state involving Somalis but were characteristically mute in condemning a similar rip-off scheme involving red state Mississippi and a few local officials who orchestrated the whole thing.

Perhaps it was just Trump’s love of wrestling, a true redneck fake sport, that kept him and his Justice Department on the sidelines.

What happened in the case of our next-door neighbor was that former Gov. Phil Bryant and some of his state government buddies diverted millions of dollars intended to help the poor (and there’s a lot of those in Mississippi). In one case, there was a text message from Favre to Nancy New, operator of the nonprofit Mississippi Community Education Center, asking, “If you were to pay me is there anyway [sic] the media can find out where it came from and how much?” Well, that’s certainly being up-front.

Favre was inquiring about the eventual diversion of $1.1 million to him in fees for speeches he never delivered at events that were never held so that a new volleyball stadium could be built at the University of Southern Mississippi, Favre’s alma mater. Coincidentally (or not), Favre’s daughter was a member of the school’s volleyball team. Favre eventually repaid the $1.1 million. Favre then did what any good citizen would do: he sued the state auditor and a couple of sportscasters, accusing them of DEFAMING HIS GOOD NAME .

But we can’t dwell on that when there’s a politically expedient scandal brewing in Minnesota.

But here’s the thing: while Trump and Kash Patel and Pam Bodi and Kristi Noem are so obsessed with fraud in Minnesota that Trump has severed childcare funding for blue states and ICE has proceeded with shooting and killing women, Trump has personally pardoned more than two dozen individuals convicted and sentenced for various fraud schemes—including the ex-CEO of the developer for a new LSU ARENA .

Trump’s honor roll also includes an individual founder of a high-profile CRYPTOCURRENCY SCHEME, trying to sell a US SENATE SEAT, CAMPAIGN FINANCE VIOLATIONS, SECURITIES AND WIRE FRAUD, BANK AND TAX FRAUD and MEDICARE FRAUD, among others.

And it’s oh-so-important to remember that when these people were sentenced, part of their sentence was to make restitution to the victims of their fraudulent schemes (kind of like when Trump was ordered to make restitution to victims of his Trump University scam).

Take Trevor Milton, the former executive chairman of Nikola. He was sentenced to four years in prison but at the same time, prosecutors argued that he should also be required to repay investors $660 million. But before the presiding judge could tote up all the damage and order restitution, Trump pardoned Milton, wiping out all financial penalties in the process. In all, Trump’s pardons have cost victims and taxpayers ABOUT $2 BILLION, including Milton’s $660 million.

And they say crime doesn’t pay.

And then there were nine pardons granted to convicted drug dealers, including, of course, the former president of Honduras, JUAN ORLANDO HERNANDEZ, convicted and sentenced to 45 years for conspiring to distribute more than 400 TONS OF COCAINE in the US, and related firearms offenses (and you thought the invasion of Venezuela was about drugs).

As the advertisers say, keep watching this space. Later today, LouisianaVoice will list each and every one of the 26 people Trump has pardoned for fraud and the nine drug dealers he issued Get Out of Jail cards to. And it’s important to note that these 35 aren’t all his pardons he’s issued. There are all those rioters from Jan. 6, 2021. We’re only listing the fraud- and drug-related pardons because it’s so important to remember that he’s gravely concerned about fraud in Minnesota and about drugs in Venezuela.

Well, what a shock.

The FBI has taken complete CONTROL OF THE INVESTIGATION into the ICE murder of Renee Good in Minneapolis Wednesday.

That ought to bring closure quickly with the likes of Kash Patel heading up our top crime investigating organization. I mean, look how quickly he jumped the gun on the Charlie Kirk assassination and how smoothly he announced the detaining of the wrong person in the Brown University and MIT killings.

How many of us place complete trust in the FBI these days? Or the U.S. Department of Justice?

In case there’s still lingering faith that they’ll do the right thing, I present as Exhibit 1, the Epstein files. They were on Attorney General Pam Bondi’s desk. Then they didn’t exist at all. Then they were bogus files concocted by Obama and finally, they have turned into more than two million pages that still have not been turned over in violation of law.

And in the process of commandeering the Minneapolis investigation, of course, the feds, led by Patel and Bondi, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem—all cheered along by Yam Tits Trump—have completely shut out the Minnesota agency that investigates officer-involved shootings. Remember, it was Bondi as attorney general of the state of Florida, who dropped an investigation into Trump University after Trump made a $25,000 contribution to her campaign.

No one asked me, but I’d say that was a pretty cheap price for a political whore.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, caught up in an investigation of fraud in his state (an irony that should not be lost on Americans, considering Trump’s own brushes with—and convictions of– fraud cases of his own), said it would be “very, very difficult for Minnesotans” to accept that an investigation that excludes the state could be fair.

In effect, the feds will be investigating a shooting by a federal official who was acting on behalf of one of the agencies investigating him and two other agencies who have a vested interest in the outcome of said investigation.

What could possibly go wrong?

As a matter of policy, I don’t normally respond to readers’ comments in the form of a new post. But I suppose there are exceptions to just about any rule so, here goes.

A reader who calls herself Zoe (but in reality, is someone else altogether, but I’ll respect her wish for anonymity and keep her name in confidence) who often takes issue with what is written here. That is her right as a citizen. Everyone has a right to his or her opinion but not to concocting one’s own facts. That is what she’s done with her latest comment and I have to call her out on it.

You can read her entire comment at the end of the post below this one.

At one point, she asks, perhaps rhetorically, “How many times have we seen someone aim a vehicle as a weapon and drive in the direction of a police officer. and that person be charged with attempted murder?”

Well, according to today’s Washington Post (you know, the publication owned by Jeff Bezos that’s not allowed to editorialize against the Trump administration), “A frame-by-frame analysis of video footage, however, raises questions about those accounts. The SUV did move toward the ICE agent as he stood in front of it. But the agent was able to move out of the way and fire at least two of three shots from the side of the vehicle as it veered past him, according to the analysis.”

Zoe then tells us, “The officer has no obligation to “move” other than self-preservation.”

I suppose there’s some validity to that if the officer is stupid.

Then Zoe says, “And let us get down to the core of the matter. Illegals are, by law, not supposed to be here.”

Okay, we’ll concede that but in this case the victim was a U.S. citizen, born and bred. And she didn’t even have brown skin and she was (gasp! blonde).

Now here’s where Zoe reverts to form for the Trumpites in managing to shift blame for anything that goes wrong to Biden when she says, “No country tolerates what the Biden Administration did to this country by allowing this to happen.”

So, now we learn that the killing of an American citizen is Biden’s fault. Don’t you just love the way they always manage to twist things around so that it’s someone else’s fault for everything? But just for fun, let’s turn it around on them and suggest, rhetorically, of course: if this had occurred during the Biden or Obama administrations, Zoe and her friends would be in a state of apoplexy.

Next, she says, “Trump has tricked you people into defending criminals, non-citizens, Narco Dictators, communists, fraudulent behavior in government….”

Afraid not, Zoe. No one is defending criminals and we certainly do not defend Maduro (though we certainly question the act of bombing unknown individuals in boats or invading another country for oil). Nor do we defend non-citizens (though we all, including Zoe, depend on them for roofing, carpentry, landscaping and picking our vegetables and fruits that we enjoy). And just who is defending “Narco Dictators” when the former president of Honduras, Nasry Asfura who was responsoble for introducing 400 tons of cocaine into this country and whose weakening of the rule of law in Honsuras appears to have contributed to the mass emigration of all those “non-citizens” to the U.S. pardoned by Trump? And finally, Zoe, it seems rather hypocritical to accuse anyone of defending “fraud” when one considers all the fraud perpetrated by one Donald J. Trump (Trump University, 5 bankruptcies, setting up a dummy “supply” corporation to avoid paying income taxes (a classic tax fraud scheme) and so brazenly defrauding of a non-profit to help cancer-stricken children as to have the entire Trump family banned from operating another non-profit. Communists, Zoe? C’mon. Whose head is it that can only be found by Putin’s proctologist? Trump absolutely adores Putin and Kim Jong Un. And it was Trump who practically gave away the Nividia Chip store to China’s communist regime.

You gotta love the way you can attack Democrats for every nuance, every hint of scandal while, at the same time, continuing to ignore, gloss over and otherwise condone the sins of one who does absolutely nothing for average Americans while taking care of his billionaire friends.

Zoe, I’m sorry, but you’ve lost touch with reality with your infatuation with Agent Orange.